Gas turbine engines, and other turbomachines, include multiple sections, such as a fan section, a compressor section, a combustor section, a turbine section, and an exhaust section. Air moves into the engine through the fan section. Airfoil arrays in the compressor section rotate to compress the air, which is then mixed with fuel and combusted in the combustor section. The products of combustion are expanded to rotatably drive airfoil arrays in the turbine section. Rotating the airfoil arrays in the turbine section drives rotation of the fan and compressor sections.
A blade outer air seal (BOAS) array includes blade outer air seal (BOAS) segments circumferentially disposed about at least a portion of the airfoil arrays. As known, the blade outer air seal environment is exposed to temperature extremes and other harsh environmental conditions, which may affect the integrity of the blade outer air seal segments. In addition, high relative movements/displacements between the BOAS segment/array (an exemplary gas turbine engine component) and surrounding static hardware (e.g., stator vanes) due to the varying thermal environment in the operational temperature range may, in particular, expose a leading edge portion of the BOAS to high heat loads, potentially shortening BOAS life and/or compelling additional cooling flow. The leading edge portion of other gas turbine engine components may also be exposed to high heat loads due to high relative movements/displacements between the static hardware and the gas turbine engine component, potentially shortening the life of the gas turbine engine component and/or compelling additional cooling flow.